HDC will hold site walk of Portwalk

PORTSMOUTH — The city's Historic District Commission is scheduled to hold a site visit Wednesday to view a mock-up of changes developers made to the downtown mixed-use Portwalk project.

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By Jeff McMenemy

seacoastonline.com

By Jeff McMenemy

Posted Aug. 26, 2014 at 2:00 AM

By Jeff McMenemy
Posted Aug. 26, 2014 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

PORTSMOUTH — The city's Historic District Commission is scheduled to hold a site visit Wednesday to view a mock-up of changes developers made to the downtown mixed-use Portwalk project.

The site visit is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and is open to the public. Commission members will meet on Portwalk Place, according to Nick Cracknell, principal planner for the city of Portsmouth.

The mock-up prepared by Portwalk developers includes a number of design changes proposed to substitute for the horizontal pre-cast banding on the Hampton Inn & Suites that was included in the original approval from the HDC, Cracknell said.

The HDC will review the proposed changes during the site visit, "which include adding pre-cast capitals, decorative aluminum panels, awnings and a different trim design for the paneled sections on the street-level story of the hotel," Cracknell said.

The commission will examine the changes but will not have a formal discussion on the changes until its Sept. 3 meeting, Cracknell said.

If the commission approves the mock-up, it will be the last hurdle developers have to overcome before receiving final approval for the project.

The hotel opened after the city granted a conditional certificate of occupancy to developers Mark Stebbins and Jeff Johnston, pending HDC approval of the mock-up.

Phase 3 of the Portwalk project, which is located at the intersection of Maplewood Avenue and Deer and Hanover streets, had been the focus of an outpouring of community protests earlier this year, when developers acknowledged they made unauthorized changes to the project after the city had given its final approval.

In addition to the hotel portion of the project, there will be 113 high-end apartments in the heart of the downtown, commercial and retail space, and 250 parking spaces, of which roughly 165 are underground.

"We're looking to give them a look-see of the mock-up, and hopefully they'll like what they see," said Scott Tranchemontagne, spokesman for the developers.